Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-039500 discloses a display apparatus in which, for higher efficiency in extracting light to the front, a resin microlens array is placed on a silicon nitride oxide (SiNxOy) film with which organic EL elements are sealed.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-302874 discloses a display apparatus in which pixels with different viewing angles are configured to simultaneously emit light, or in which each pixel is configured to have two regions with different viewing angles, the two regions being capable of simultaneously emitting light. It is thus possible to achieve a wide viewing angle while providing high front luminance.
Using a microlens array, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-039500, increases luminance in the front direction, but reduces luminance in oblique directions.
Such a display apparatus may not be able to provide satisfactory performance in situations where wide viewing angle characteristics are required.
This problem is not confined to organic EL elements using a microlens array, but occurs in organic EL elements having an optical interference effect.
On the other hand, with the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-302874, it is possible to achieve a wide viewing angle while providing high front luminance. However, the technique does not allow the user to select a front luminance (light extraction efficiency) priority mode or a wide viewing angle priority mode, depending on the situation.
An object of the present invention is to provide a display apparatus having organic EL elements and capable of switching between a front luminance (light extraction efficiency) priority mode (i.e., a mode having a narrow viewing angle characteristic) and a mode having a wide viewing angle characteristic, depending on the user's situation.